~posted by Roma
We
have lived in northeast Oklahoma for almost 10 weeks now. I don’t know about the
rest of my family, but I know I have days when I still miss Texas so badly. I’m
having a lot of fun here in OK, making friends and making great memories
already. But sometimes I have days where it would be amazing to wake up in my
old bedroom, and look out the window to see an incredible Texas sunrise peeking
up from behind the pecan trees. To go to our old church on Sunday, and hug
people because you know them. To see familiar faces and sights. But we serve a
great God who has provided for all our needs. Our Dad, Bianca, and Ben all have
jobs now and all three of them work for Christians. Ruby and I are learning
really well how to drive cars. Josiah has a basketball game coming up soon. And
on and on.
This
is a blog post that will go over all the fun highlights we’ve had here the past 10 weeks and what we’ve done. Enjoy!
So,
I should start with some pictures of the moving process…
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This
van looked really familiar to us. It may look familiar to you too. The van that
had just moved us 32 months prior (from MI to TX) was now moving us again! The
funny part is they could never bring it up our narrow driveway so they always
needed a shuttle. These guys worked hard!
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Great place to play
hide and go seek!
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Lots
of neighbors and people from church came over to say goodbye, bring us
Starbucks, give us gift baskets, or take away our basketball hoop. J
(We didn’t need it.) I took some last TX sunset pictures that were gorgeous,
and wrote about this whole journey in my journal.
The
next morning we had cereal but no milk, so I ate cereal with vanilla ice cream.
J The boys took one car full of stuff, Ruby
and Bianca took one car full of stuff and the two dogs in the back, and Mom and
I took one car full of stuff and the tranquilized, terrified cats. I took a
video with my camera of us driving away. Ben was in New Mexico hiking 100+
miles with the Boy Scouts at Philmont, so he missed the whole moving process!
And
then in just 3.5 or so hours, we were there!
The
house is beautiful. It has a lodge/cabin/dark lodge-y kind of feel, with 10
acres, a pond, and woods with a small trail going through them. (The dogs
were--and still are-- having the time of their lives!) The front porch is really
wide and has been a great place for morning devotions. The driveway is super
steep and crazy to bike or roller race down. We live on a big hill, so going
down the hill is amazing and going up is a physical challenge.
One
thing we’ve had to adjust to is all of us kids having our bedrooms on the first
floor. (Except Bianca, who is on the loft on the second floor.) But now the
boys and Ruby and I share a Jack & Jill bath attached to our rooms which
has been nice! There are pros and cons about every house, but overall, we
really like it here! We have pretty much unpacked every box now and cleaned up,
so come visit us! J
Alright,
some fun things we’ve done here the past 10 weeks…
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…Found a Christian
soda fountain and a job for Bianca on the same day….
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…Visited with missionary
friends that we’ve known for a whole decade now…
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Bianca got a visit
from her man J and we celebrated
his birthday. We went tubing down the Illinois River one day, had a picnic by
the river, went out to dinner, and explored the town. I’m thinking it’s about
time to go on another photo shoot in this cute town soon!
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Josiah’s got this. He
doesn’t need help. J
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We’ve
been trying different restaurants, going for evening walks, visiting coffee
shops, and more. There are a lot of festivals that go on here, with lots of
activities. So after we ate we enjoyed the different tents set up outside—one tent
had knives, so the boys were drawn to that tent right away. J
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Just beyond the
tents, two guys were playing with fire—literally!
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We
look forward to the other festivals that our different towns here in Okie will
have in the future!
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Lots of families from
our new church have so graciously invited us to their homes, or to different
restaurants with them to eat lunch together after church! That has really
helped us get to know the families better and we’ve enjoyed the fellowship so
much! This home above is the R family’s home. Mr. R is a deacon at our church
and while Mom and Dad were enjoying talking to them, Ruby and I talked with their
grown-up son S and his wife M for probably an hour, about different hobbies, Lord
of the Rings, and more!
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Then there was that
one time we went with our youth group to watch the movie “War Room.” If you
have not seen this film yet, it is a MUST SEE.
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Ruby
and I went camping in our front yard one night; then a couple days later we
started school, which hasn’t been bad so far. I enjoy doing and learning new
things and so far it’s not crazy or hectic--it’s pretty relaxing. We also went
back to the Illinois River a few weeks ago for a church picnic! We used our Youth
Pastor’s canoes and kayaks, went swimming, and had hot dogs, homemade chips,
and oatmeal cream pies. Bianca and Ben were at a college conference in TX, but
the rest of us enjoyed that picnic! Recently, Ruby and I went to a girl’s
pajama party with our youth group girls and we had fun doing that too!
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So hopefully that
kind of sums up EVERYTHING. Any questions? Just kidding. J
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